JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE

Nov. 28, 2021

NASA has once again changed the launch date of the $8 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) from December 18 to December 22.

About:

  • JWST will be launched on an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from French Guiana in South America. The rocket system is being contributed by the European Space Agency (ESA).

  • The telescope is the result of an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.

  • JWST, which is a large infrared telescope, will study “every phase” in the history of the universe, including the Big Bang, the formation of solar systems that are capable of supporting life on other planets and also, the evolution of our own Solar System.

  • It is also considered a successor of the Hubble Telescope and will extend and complement its discoveries.

  • Because of JWST’s longer wavelengths, for instance, it will be able to look further back in time, “to find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, and to peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today”.